St. Catherine's Orthodox Mission in St. Petersburg, FL

Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles

Tropar Of Pentecost, Tone 8:

Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast shown forth the fishermen as supremely wise, by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them, didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of mankind, glory be to Thee.

Kondak Of Pentecost, Tone 8:

Once, when He descended and confounded the tongues, the Most High divided the nations; and when He divided the tongues of fire, He called all men into unity; and with one accord we glorify the All-Holy Spirit.

St. Catherine the Great Martyr

Orthodox Mission

Tropar - Tone 4

With thy virtues, as with the rays of the sun, thou didst enlighten the unbelieving philosophers; and like the most radiant moon shining on those who walk at night, thou didst drive away the darkness of unbelief. Thou didst bring the empress to faith and didst denounce the tyrant, O divinely elect bride. O blessed Catherine, with desire thou didst make haste to the heavenly bridal chamber, to Christ the most comely Bridegroom, and by Him has thou been crowned with a royal crown. Standing with the angels before Him, do thou pray for us who keep thy most honored memory.

Kondak - Tone 2

O ye who love the martyrs, raise up an honored chorus in godly manner; honoring the most wise Catherine; for in the arena she preached Christ and trod upon the serpent, putting down the knowledge of the rhetors.

Divine Liturgy in English every Saturday at 9am.

Catechism after Liturgy

Inquirers most welcome!

St Andrew Orthodox Cathedral

6465 54th Ave. N. St. Petersburg, FL 33709

"If you only knew how great a blessing comes from the Divine Liturgy, then you would collect even the dust from the floor of the church to wash your faces with it..."

St. Gabriel the Confessor and fool for Christ

His Eminence Nicholas

Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York

First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Christ is in our midst!

I pray that you are all well and that this fast in preparation of the celebration of the Dormition of the Mother of God is bearing fruit.

For a tree or a vine to bear fruit requires attention and toil. It requires cultivating and pruning. The same applies to our spiritual life. To grow in the life in Christ and bear the fruits of the Spirit requires time for cultivation and pruning. Now cultivation and pruning don’t sound particularly enjoyable. Yet they are necessary. The Lord Himself bears witness to this when He says: I am the vine. You are the branches. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the husbandman. In order to bear fruit we must abide in Him or the husbandman comes and cuts off the unfruitful branches and casts them in the fire. Abiding in Him, this is cultivation and pruning, it is the keeping of His commandments. We abide in Him be keeping the commandments.

On the feasts of the Mother of God we hear the words: Indeed, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. We hear the word of God in the holy Church. We read the Psalms, Prophets, Proverbs, Epistles and Gospel. The verses chanted are frequently from or inspirited by the Scriptures. We hear the word of God when we read it. Reading the Scriptures is a vital aspect of our Orthodox Christian life.

We learn how to keep the Word of God by following the examples, first of all, of our Lord Jesus Christ, the very Word of God incarnate, then of His Most-pure Mother, who because of her love and dedication to God was chosen to be the living ark, and of all the Saints. Reading the lives of the Saints, learning from their trials, tribulations, struggles, repentance, vigil, desire and yearning for God, are indispensable for learning how to put into practice that which we hear and read.

Maybe sometimes i sound like a broken record, repeating the same thing over and over again. But is not our daily life a repeated cycle? The Church services also come in cycles. But the cycle should not be experienced the same way each time. As we grow in the faith, our experience, and therefore our perception of the mysteries of God grows. If this is not happening, we need to examine ourselves and see why this may be the case. Consistency is paramount in the spiritual life. We should not do so little that it requires little or no effort, but we should not do so much that we are easily dissuaded from keeping our rule.

I will likely post on Telegram while away. If you are not part of our Telegram we may certainly join us.

About

Upcoming Services

Saturday, August 26 - St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Divine Liturgy at 9am. Vigil at 5pm.

Sunday, August 27 - The Holy Prophet Micah. Divine Liturgy at 10am. Vigil at 5pm.

Monday, August 28 - The Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. Divine Liturgy at 9am.

Thursday, August 31 - Vigil at 5pm.

Friday, September 1 - The Holy Martyr Andrew Stratelates. Divine Liturgy at 9am.

Saturday, September 2 - The Afterfeast of the Dormition. The Holy Prophet Samuel. Divine Liturgy in English at 9am. Vigil at 5pm.

Sunday, September 3 - The Afterfeast of the Dormition. The Holy Apostle Thaddeus. Hierarchal Divine Liturgy at 10am. 75th Anniversary Celebration.

Saturday, September 9 - The Venerable Poemen the Great. Divine Liturgy in English at 9am. Class. Vigil at 5pm.

Sunday, September 10 - The Venerable Moses the Black of Scetis. Divine Liturgy at 10am. Vigil.

Monday, September 11 - The Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Divine Liturgy at 9am. Stict fast.

Saturday, September 16 - The Hieromartyr Anthimus. Divine Liturgy in English at 9am. Class. Vigil at 5pm.

Sunday, September 17 - The Hieromartyr Babylas. Divine Liturgy at 10am.

oReminder: We are concelebrating with Fr. Igor and the faithful of St. Andrew's Orthodox Cathedral, - 6465 54th Ave. N., - St. Petersburg, whose gracious hospitality is ever appreciated.

facebook.com/StCatherineStPete

If you live in the greater Tampa Bay area and are interested in Orthodoxy or would like to help in establishing a traditional Orthodox parish in English

please call 727-239-9186 and leave a message or e-mail me at frstevofl@gmail.com.

I'd love to hear from you!

Our Purpose

Fr. Stephen Zaremba

Most of those who come on Saturday morning also come on Sunday, while others attend other Orthodox parishes on Sundays. Some have relocated from other states and are looking for a spiritual home. We have baptized a few adults after a period of preparation, and have also baptized children born into Orthodox Christian families. Truly God is good to us!

Thanks be to God our community is slowly growing. Since our ways are not God’s ways we are traversing an unexpected path, currently serving at St. Andrew’s Russian Orthodox Church in St. Petersburg. It is proving quite beneficial for both our St. Catherine’s Mission and the St. Andrew’s parish. God’s providence is truly remarkable.

First a quick word about St. Andrew’s. It is a Russian speaking community. The church is beautiful, the choir is excellent, the services served properly. While most of the vigil and Sunday Divine Liturgy are celebrated in Church Slavonic, English is used based on attendance. The Epistle and Gospel are always read in English and there is sermon in English. If you are familiar with the Divine Liturgy you will feel very comfortable. Fr. Igor and the parishioners of St. Andrew’s have made us feel quite welcome indeed.

On Saturdays we celebrate the Divine Liturgy in English, followed by a Bible Study. This started off as quite a small group but it has been growing so that we usually have about 20 or more stay for our class. Not bad for a Saturday morning!

We are a mission. Our purpose is to make traditional, apostolic Christianity, today known as Orthodoxy, available to those who are seeking it. Many are seeking it not quite knowing what it is. If you are looking for God - look here. If you are looking for stability, where doctrines do not change with the blowing of the wind - look here. If you want to truly learn how to worship in the spirit and truth as taught by the holy Apostles - look here. If you are are not sure just what it is that you are looking for - look here. We don’t make things up as we go and we don’t change with the times. Truth is truth. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

The world is going through a time of considerable turmoil. No one knows what the future holds. The Orthodox Christian Faith has withstood the bloody persecutions of ancient Rome, the tribulation of the Arian, Iconoclastic and other heresies, the onslaught of the Persians and Moslems, Communism and everything else that the Adversary has thrown at us through the centuries. But as our Lord promised, the gates of hell have not prevailed. Regardless of what the future may hold, the Orthodox Faith will remain like bedrock unto the Lord returns.

Now some may think that Orthodox Christianity is similar to Roman Catholicism. While there may be some external similarities, Roman Catholics and Protestants, with their now 30,000 denominations, are far closer to one another than they are to the Orthodox. While this may seem very wrong, Protestantism is a reaction to Roman Catholicism and as such, while they certainly have different beliefs and solutions, they have the same mindset.

Orthodoxy is quite different as it has resisted the temptation to be altered by the philosophy of the day through the centuries. Orthodoxy is what is and has been believed by everyone everywhere from the beginning. No change. No compromise. It is manly - men love it. It is not a soft faith. It challenges each believer. And no, it is not too much for women and children. Orthodoxy is beautiful, full of joy and light, gentleness and compassion.

If you are in the area, we would love to meet you. You can contact me at frstevofl@gmail.com or call or text to 727-239-9186.

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The following was a letter to the Roman Emperor Hadrian (d.138AD) from the Athenian Orator Aristides in which he depicts how the Early Christians lived. This is how Christianity conquered the world. This is how it will do so again...

“The Christians know and trust God…They placate those who oppress them and make them their friends; they do good to their enemies. Their wives are absolutely pure, and their daughters modest. Their men abstain from unlawful marriage and are free from all impurity: If any of them have bondwomen or children, they persuade them to become Christians for the love they have toward them; and when they become so, they call them without distinction brothers…They love one another: They do not refuse to help the widows. They rescue the orphan from him who does him violence. He who has, gives ungrudgingly to him who has not. If they see a stranger; they take him to their dwellings and rejoice over him as over a real brother; for they do not call themselves brothers after the flesh, but after the Spirit and in God…If any one among them is poor and needy; and they do not have food to spare, they fast for two or three days, that they may supply him with necessary food. They scrupulously obey the commands of their Messiah. Every morning and every hour they thank and praise God for His loving-kindness toward them…Because of them there flows forth all the beauty that there is in the world. But the good deeds they do, they do not proclaim in the ears of the multitude, but they take care that no one shall perceive them. Thus they labor to become righteous…Truly, this is a new people and there is something divine in them.”